SpaceX will launch its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time in three years | News on science and technology

SpaceX will launch its Falcon Heavy rocket today for the first time in more than three years.

Elon MuskThe company aims to send two US Space Force aircraft into orbit two years after the mission was originally scheduled.

The repeated delays were due to problems with the payload, which in this case includes a microsatellite dubbed TETRA-1 that was created for “various prototype missions”.

The Falcon Heavy rocket was not launched from June 2019when it took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center carrying two dozen satellites, an atomic clock in deep space, the ashes of astronaut Bill Pogue, and more.

At the time it was believed SpaceXThe hardest launch of

Since then, the company has made dozens of launches using its other rockets, including the blast of its first all-civilian crew into space in a three-day voyage.

Mr. Musk has been busy too – this is SpaceX’s first major launch since then bought Twitter.

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The launch on Tuesday – scheduled for 9:40 am local time (1:40 pm in the UK) – will be the first to show off three Falcon 9 boosters, needed to provide the necessary thrust for the Falcon Heavy.

The Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operating rocket in the world, according to SpaceX.

Falcon 9s regularly throw themselves, like when they catch SpaceX’s Starlink satellites in orbit.

November is set to be a busy month for major space missions, with Artemis 1 from NASA, long-delayed and the first rocket launch from British soil also due.

And next month, SpaceX hopes to launch its giant Starship rocket into orbit for the first time.

It will be a pivotal demonstration flight as it aims to get NASA astronauts to the moon in the coming years.